What Changes May Come
by Amaz.333
Summary: Based on the movie War of The Worlds. Robbie has a lucky break after seperating from his father and sister. He's brought along with an unexpected group of survivors with the promise of getting him to Boston. But will they make it before they fall apart, or will the aliens get to them first?
1. Chapter 1

**I've been working on this story for a few years now. Constructive criticism is welcome and I hope that you enjoy the story. **

**After the third chapter, this story shall be updated every Friday unless there is conflict in scheduling.**

**I do not own War of The Worlds or their corresponding characters.**

* * *

**Robbie**

I ran over the hill, after dad finally let me go. The tripods were winning, and I could feel every fiber in my body ache in wanting them to be destroyed. But what could I do? Against those things, there was nothing.

"Hey, kid!" came a shout. "What the hell are you doing?" A short girl ran up and started pulling on my arm with surprising force towards a small shack. "Come on! We gotta get out of here!" she pleaded.

"But, I have to see this!" I said, ripping my arm from her grip.

"Yeah, well you can see it all from there, now let's go!" she snapped, taking my arm again. "I can't believe she made me get you!" she hissed at herself.

"She?" I asked, finally complying to her commands.

"Yeah, she." she huffed, pointing at a girl holding someone in her arms. From where I stood, it looked like a little girl.

"Caitlin! Let's go!" the girl shouted, looking over her shoulder. She turned back to the shack and I watched as one of the boys kicked the door in. A taller girl ran inside followed by two other guys and a black girl with dreadlocks.

Caitlin let go seeing that I was coming and started running for the shack as a tripod came up the hill. She jumped into the shack, and I looked back for a moment to see the tripod shooting its lazar. There was a huge yank on the back of my coat and I fell backwards. The light from the fires of outside was quickly extinguished when someone slammed the door shut.

"Next time you want to save someone's ass, Nova, you do it yourself!" Caitlin snapped.

Nova ignored Caitlin and turned to me. Even in the dim light I could see she was pissed, "When someone tells you to move, you better get your ass moving! Do you have any idea how risky that was for Caitlin to save you?" she whispered, but the power in her voice was scary.

"Nova?" came a weak tremble. All our attention was turned to the little girl, which was when I saw, faintly, the bloody shirt she was wearing.

"Derek, get the first aid kit." Nova commanded softly, as she fell to the girl's side. Derek ripped open a bag and pulled out a plastic box with a red cross on the front. "Ashley, keep pressure on that." she moved the girls hands to the child's stomach and pressed down. The girl winced, "I'm sorry, Jenny, I know it hurts." she whispered.

Caitlin started digging through the bag that she had slung over her shoulder, "Derek, get the alcohol, a cloth, and some gauze." she commanded.

Derek handed the bottle of alcohol over to Nova and she unscrewed the lid from the brown bottle. She poured it over the cloth that Derek passed her and pressed it against Jenny's wound after her shirt was gently removed by one of the guys. "What do you want me to do with this?" the guy with the shirt asked, looking away from the small girl who I realized was wearing a bra, which meant she wasn't as young as I originally thought.

"Stuff it in a bag, who knows when we might need it, and we can always find a place to wash it." Ashley said, holding Jenny's hand as she squirmed under the cloth that Nova was using to clean her injury.

The guy with the shirt handed it over to the blond boy with yet another bag that then shoved it inside. "Elijah, get her another shirt, please." Nova whispered, as she inspected the wound. Elijah, the blond, plunged his hand back into the bag and extracted a clean shirt. "There's not much we can do about this, Jen. If we can find a medic we can try and get you better treatment." Jenny nodded and bit her lips as Nova finished thoroughly cleaning the wound. "I'm just going to wrap it for now." she informed, grabbing the gauze. "Ashley, help her sit up."

Once they were done, Caitlin handed over a bottle of pills. "Here, for the pain." she also gave Nova a bottle of water.

"Jen?" Nova cooed, waking up Jenny, who had passed out while they were wrapping her. "Here, you can sleep after you take this. It'll help with the pain." Jenny nodded and took the pills, swallowing the water with some help from Nova and Ashley, considering she was too weak to even move that much. "Rest now." Nova whispered. Jenny had no trouble complying.

"So, what's your name?" asked Derek, staying quiet so Jenny could sleep.

"Robbie Ferrier." I said automatically. "And yours?" I asked, looking at each of them.

"Caitlin Little."

"Ashley Whelks."

"Derek Owens."

"Elijah Manning."

"Jaylin Worth."

"Jessie Quinn, my sister Novalee." Jessie gestured to Nova who was kneeling over Jenny.

"This is Jennifer Phillips." Nova whispered, brushing some hair out of Jennifer's face.

"Where's your family?" Ashley asked, pressing her back against the shack wall.

"My mom and step-dad are in Boston. My dad was taking me and my little sister there when we separated." I explained, feeling bad for leaving Rachel alone.

"Why did you guys separate?" Derek asked, tossing the bags in the corner.

"I had to see them." I sighed, referring to the tripods.

"So you left your family so you could see the tripods?" Elijah repeated, incredulous.

I shrugged, "Yeah…not my best choice." the screams and explosions seemed distant in the quiet shack, where only our breathing was audible at the moment, "What about your families?"

"Arizona. My family is dead." Elijah sighed, shaking his head, "I'm hoping my aunt and uncle are still alive in D.C."

"We're all coming from Arizona." Derek pointed out, "We all went to the same school. My family got separated. I'm searching for my sister."

"Dead. Sticking with Nova." Jaylin said simply.

"I don't know what's happened to my family, I was visiting Nova from Washington State, when this started." Ashley sighed.

"My parents are dead, and I'm hoping my brother and his girlfriend and her baby are okay." Caitlin said, covering the sob with a cough.

"Our parents are military, they went to fight and we don't know if they're okay. Nova, Ashley, and I left our home when those tripods came to our neighborhood." Jessie pointed out.

"Jenny was sleeping over that day, so we went to see if her family was okay. But they'd left." Ashley finished, looking sadly at Jenny.

"We need to get some rest. I'll take first watch." Nova said, reaching over to an ax that had been forgotten on the floor. They all agreed and set up some makeshift beds with pillows and blankets.

Nova leaned against the door, placing the ax beside her. "Hey, Robbie, here." Derek tossed me a pillow and blanket, motioning for me to set up beside him. I obeyed quickly, not wanting to be rude to people who just saved my ass.

After getting settled, everyone either slept or whispered to each other about their families or where they'd be going from here. I looked at Nova who was staring out a crack in the shack, her body constantly tense. "Hey, Derek?" I whispered, wondering if he was asleep.

Thankfully, he wasn't, "Yeah?"

"Is Nova like the leader of your group?" I asked, looking at him through the dark.

"If you asked her, she'd say no." he shrugged.

"But I'm asking you." I sighed.

"I guess, yeah. Unofficially, at least." he mused.

Elijah cut in then, "She's always the first to jump into action."

"Yeah, and she puts us before herself." Jessie sighed, staring at the ceiling. "I wish she wouldn't, sometimes, though."

"Who's older?" I asked, directing my question at Jessie.

"I am. I turned twenty last year…it's kind of embarrassing for my little sister to be stronger than me, but I'm proud of her for the way she's handling all this shit." he replied.

"Pack everything! Quickly!" Nova whispered, shaking those who had fallen asleep awake, except for Jenny.

"Why? What's going on?" Ashley asked, even though she was already stuffing blankets into a bag followed by the pillows that were handed to her.

"They're checking out the buildings, we've gotta go." she informed, kicking a hole through the back wall, big enough for us to fit through. She started throwing the bags out of the hole and then motioned for Caitlin to go through followed by Ashley, then Jaylin. Elijah jumped through and held his hands out for someone to grab. Derek picked up Jenny and placed her in Elijah's hands. She was quickly pulled from the shack and Jessie followed. "Go." Nova commanded, staring hard at the door, as if she was willing the aliens to slow down in their inspections of the houses.

I did as she said and was soon followed by her. "Let's go." she said, jogging off in the opposite direction of the tripods.

I looked to my left to see Derek carrying Jenny, trying to be as gentle as possible while also trying to keep up with the rest of the group. Derek yelled as he tripped over a rock, his ankle twisting awkwardly. He fell to the ground, turning his body so he didn't land on or drop Jenny. Instantly, Nova was there. "Robbie!" she called. I ran over and she put Jenny in my arms. "Go, catch up with the others, Jessie knows where to go!" she ordered, pointing at the group that was disappearing into the trees.

Jenny had woken up at Derek's yell from the fall, "What's going on?"

"Tripods started searching the buildings." I said, catching my breath from the running once I made it around a tree.

"Where are the others?" she asked, her eyes growing wide in panic as she wobbled on her feet, holding onto me.

"The group went through there-" I said, pointing in that direction, Caitlin's back still visible. "Nova and Derek are back there- he tripped while carrying you, I think he twisted his ankle."

"We should go back and help them!" Jenny said, about to rush off to Nova but almost fell from her still weakened state.

"Nova told me to catch up with Jessie." I said, making her get on my back. An unearthly cry was heard and I looked around the tree. Jenny gasped. "Is that…an alien?" I asked, staring horrified at the creature that was quickly making its way to Nova and Derek.

"No!" Jenny screamed. I clapped my hand over her mouth to keep her quiet.

Nova turned at the sound of Jenny screaming, and shouted at us, "Get her out of here!" she turned back just in time for the alien to knock her off her feet, dropping the ax.

Derek tried swinging at the monster, but it just pushed him down, holding him to the ground, preparing to kill him. The alien lifted its hand, fisting its three fingers, and just as it brought it down to bash Derek's face in, Nova had jumped to her feet, grabbing the ax and hitting the alien in the head.

The alien hopped away from the two. "Derek, run!" she commanded, pulling him to his feet and pushing him towards us.

But, he didn't comply, "I'm not leaving you alone with this!" he shouted. The alien looked pissed off and started charging them. The elegance of its movements almost completely overshadowed how much ground it covered. 'Almost' was the key word. Nova lifted the ax and swung just as the Alien reared up to attack them, landing the swing in its stomach.

Nova wasted no time, pulling Derek's arm over her shoulders and helping him semi-jog towards us.


	2. Chapter 2

**Robbie**

We finally caught up to the rest of the group. Jessie had lead everyone to a dense area of trees and bushes where we wouldn't be seen unless the tripods tore the trees from the ground. Everyone had set beds up, and when we arrived, Jessie took Jenny from me and put her in a bed, checking her injury.

"I'm fine." she sighed, pushing him off of her.

"Nova!" Ashley ran up to her as she carried Derek into camp. "What happened?" she asked, taking Derek and leading him over to another bed.

"I tripped. I fucking tripped." Derek snapped, but mostly to himself. "I almost dropped Jenny."

"Almost." Jenny said, glaring at him for beating himself up.

"Alright, now tell me why my sister is covered in blood?!" Jessie shouted, swiftly walking up to Derek and glaring daggers down at him.

"It's not my blood. One of those aliens caught up with us, and I took care of it." Nova sighed, tossing the ax to the ground, and then sitting against a tree.

"That thing hit you pretty hard." I said, looking at her worried. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." she replied, rolling her eyes, and then laughing at herself.

"What the hell is so funny? You could've died!" Jessie shouted.

Nova kept laughing and everyone just gave her an odd look, "We all could've died." she chuckled. "There hasn't been a moment since this began that the risk of any of us dying hasn't come up." She shook her head, still laughing, "One of us has already died."

"Yeah, and we should be doing everything in our power to not get ourselves killed!" Jessie yelled, not happy with his little sister.

"Derek would've died. She did just that." Caitlin pointed out.

"Derek isn't my sister! Derek isn't the only family I probably have left!" Jessie bellowed at her, turning his fury on her.

"We've all lost our families, Jessie." Elijah tried to reason.

"And you have no one left! She's all I have!"

"Jessie!" Nova shouted, standing up, her laughter finally gone. Her face was hard. Jessie turned around, narrowing his eyes at her, but he didn't say anything. "We lost mom and dad, that doesn't mean they're dead." his eyes widened in shock, and his mouth fell open, "I'm not the only thing you have left. This group is our family now, and if you're not going to do what you can to protect this family, then you are a liability." she said, her voice dead serious. "I'm not going to let my family suffer. I'm also not going to kick you out of this group. But, you have to stop using me as an excuse. You're upset because we don't know what's happened to mom and dad, and I know you're scared to lose me, too. But, I'm not going anywhere."

The whole camp was silent, all staring at Nova in shock. Jessie dropped his gaze to the ground, took a deep breath and then shook his head, sulking over to a blanket and pillow that I assumed was his. "Is anyone hungry?" Ashley asked, breaking the silence. Everyone nodded stiffly and she started digging through a bag that probably had some food. They had a lot of bags, that they never seemed to have trouble carrying.

I walked over to Ashley and helped her make sandwiches. After a few minutes of quiet, I finally couldn't take it, "Why did everyone act so shocked when Nova yelled at Jessie?" I asked, not looking up.

"Why do you wanna know?" she asked, shrugging.

"It was weird." I said simply.

Ashley sighed, "We weren't shocked because she yelled at Jessie, if that's what you're thinking. Jessie can 'over react', as Nova would put it, sometimes. So she's yelled at him before, setting him straight."

I nodded, hoping she would continue, "So, then, why was everyone shocked?" I pushed.

"Because, everyone has talked about their losses, even Jessie. But, Nova has never mentioned how she feels about what's happening, or what she's lost. She hasn't complained at all, and, she especially never spoke of her parents. So, when she did just now…yeah." she trailed off.

Elijah walked over to grab a sandwich for himself, Derek, and Jenny. "We're all worried about her, though. Jenny keeps telling her it's unhealthy to bottle up emotions like that, but Nova just smiles and tells us not to worry." he sighed.

"Hey, Robbie?" I turned my head to see Jaylin picking up a sandwich. "Are you going to look for your family?" she asked, looking up at me.

"Yeah, I guess so." I said, thinking to myself. "But, I'm not sure of how to get to Boston…."

"Hey, Robbie, come here!" I looked over my shoulder to see Nova waving me over.

"Take this to her, will you?" Ashley asked, handing me another sandwich.

I didn't think Nova was in any mood to be kept waiting so I jogged over to her, handing her the sandwich. "What?" I asked, not intending to sound as rude as I did just then.

But, she just seemed to ignore it, "If I tell you to get someone out of somewhere, you do it." she said, not beating around the bush, referring to the incident when I was supposed to be getting Jenny to the rest of the group.

"I'm sorry." I sighed, sitting down beside her.

"It's fine, just don't make that mistake again." she shook her head, biting into the sandwich. "So, listen. Are you going to try and get to your family in Boston?" she asked, pulling out a compass and a map. "If you are, we can help you get there if you want. Either point you in the right direction or you can come with us to D.C. and then split."

"I'll go with you to D.C.." I said quickly.

She nodded and spread the map out, laying the compass on top of it. "You can go if you want." She said, not looking up.

I went to stand, but stopped short, "Nova…thank you." she looked up at me then. Nova didn't smile, or scowl. She just nodded her head, not sure of how to react to my gratitude, I suppose.

Everyone was settling down to rest, Elijah and Jessie going over to Nova. Elijah nodded at me as I passed, and Jessie kept his head down, an angry expression on his face. "Can you check on Jenny before you go to sleep?" Elijah asked over his shoulder. I waved my hand in response and headed over to her.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" I asked awkwardly, since I didn't really know her.

She was looking through the trees, up at the moon, "It makes it seem so peaceful." she sighed. My attention was drawn to the shining orb in the sky, "Like all this shit never happened, and we're a bunch of teenagers on a camping trip. If I wasn't hurt, I'd probably forget that we're on the run from hostile alien invaders." She laughed, and I laughed with her, almost not noticing the wince she made but tried to play off with more laughing.

"Do you need more pain medication?" I asked, reaching over to the bag I had seen Caitlin get the pills from.

"No, I'm fine." I nodded and put the bag back beside her head. "I noticed you were talking to Nova." she was watching me carefully, "The look on her face- did you compliment her? Thank her?"

"I thanked her…" I said, hesitant. It could've been a bad thing.

"Yeah, she doesn't take well to either. She just doesn't know how to accept them, that's all. Don't think you've done anything wrong. She's not the easiest to piss off…most of the time. If you endanger someone she cares about, though, it's a different story." Jenny sighed.

"Good to know…I'll let you get some rest. Goodnight." I said. She waved to me and then turned her head away from the camp as I left her.

I went to the other side of the embers that the group had collected to keep us warm, and laid down, just watching them and thinking of my family.

**Nova**

I didn't know how to react to Robbie's thanks…I was never good at doing that. Elijah and Jessie walked up to me, sitting around the map I had laid out in front of me. This was sort of the inner circle…but not really. With Jenny injured, I had her getting as much rest as possible, so she couldn't come to the 'meetings'. Now that Derek got himself hurt, I forced him to stay off his ankle, telling him it needed to heal. Caitlin and Ashley would join us soon enough, unless one of them decided to stay closer to camp and keep an eye on things. And Jaylin was already asleep. Of course, I didn't expect Robbie to join us- he didn't know how we worked, at least not yet, and we won't bother explaining that until we're sure we won't be chased by viscous Martians for a little while.

"So, are we helping Robbie get to his family, or are we headed for D.C. first?" Elijah asked quickly, staring hard at the map, searching frantically for D.C. and Boston to see how far apart they were. I had already found both, my determination to keep everyone safe and to get to D.C. for Elijah's family stronger then my determination of keeping myself alive was.

"D.C. is closer, we'll be heading there. If your family is alive, and there, you and the group will be staying with them. I'll help Robbie get to Boston-"

"Not alone!" Jessie snapped, keeping his voice down. I sighed, rolling my eyes at my brother.

"I won't be alone, Jess, Robbie will be there."

"We don't know how dependable he is…" Elijah sighed, obviously not wanting to admit the truth, but it had to be said.

"He doesn't know how dependable we are, but he's still here, and he's counting on us to help him get to his family, too." I pointed out, looking down at my compass to see which direction we'd be going in the morning.

Ashley strolled up, plopping down beside me and laying her head on my shoulder. "Nova, will you sing us a song?" she asked, sighing heavily. I cocked my eyebrow at her, resisting the urge to scoff. I hated singing in front of people, and she knew that, so she had never asked before.

"You sing?" Elijah asked. I remembered he played ukulele, and he happened to have his.

I shook my head and shut my compass, "Fine." I sighed, folding up my paper. "We all need to get some sleep soon, anyway. We'll continue this conversation tomorrow."

Everyone was laying in their makeshift beds, the hard ground wasn't a very good mattress. "Nova, I'll take watch, you need to sleep." I narrowed my eyes at Jessie, as he pushed me back down when I tried getting up.

"I'm fine, I'll take-" I stopped mid-sentence when Jessie gave me a hard look. I sighed in irritation and went to lay out a blanket and pillow beside Jenny, on the very edge of the camp.

As soon as I laid my head on the pillow, my mind started buzzing with uncertainties. What if you can't get them to D.C…. let alone alive? What if Jenny's wound gets infected? What if Derek ends up breaking that ankle? What if you can't find Riley? What if Elijah's family is dead or gone? What if Robbie's family is dead or gone? What if your family is dead? What if you fail them?

"Nova?" the many questions halted as Jenny's tired voice broke the nightly silence. I turned over to face her, seeing her watching me with those hazel green eyes. "You've been up this whole time." it wasn't a question, so I didn't answer. "Are you scared?" she asked, genuine curiosity etched onto her face.

"Of course." I whispered, part of me not wanting to admit it, but I knew she could always call bull shit on me.

"Really? It always seems like you aren't…" she trailed off, furrowing her brows.

"How? Sometimes, I think I'm the most scared out of all of us…." I didn't mean to say that part, but I trusted Jenny, and I couldn't help it.

"That's because you're taking up the position as our protector. You do everything you can to make sure we're okay…you don't seem to care much about your own safety." she huffed, glaring at me, but the smile on her face showed that she wasn't that mad.

"The safety of the group is my priority."

"No, it's not-"

"I've made it my priority." I snapped. "You guys are my family, now. I'd do anything to keep you all safe." I sighed.

"If an adult were to show up, and sheltered us; would you stop stressing out?" she asked, completely serious.

"If that's what you'd want me to do, Jenny, yes." she watched me intently, searching for any hint of doubt.

"Okay." she agreed, "If I say for you to stop stressing, stop."

"Only if there's an adult to shelter us." I stated firmly. She held out her pinky, and I latched mine in hers. We kissed our thumbs and pressed them together. "I will not break my promise to you." I whispered. "Now, get some sleep." she nodded and closed her eyes, quickly drifting off to sleep.

When I turned over, I shut my eyes, trying to block out the questions that started speeding through my head again, focusing on remembering the lyrics to songs from before, scenes from my favorite movies…trying to remember what I had to do for Algebra II….


	3. Chapter 3

**Elijah**

Jessie looked like he was about to pass out, but he kept pinching himself to stay awake. He knew Nova would give him hell if he fell asleep. It would cost the safety of the group, and that was more important to her than her own life- it was so obvious.

"Hey, go get some sleep, I'll take it from here." I said, patting him on the shoulder as he was about to fall over against the tree trunk. He smiled gratefully at me and went to bed, leaving me the ax.

I stared off in the direction that we had come from, keeping my ears open for any sounds, and my eyes trained in the dark for any figures. The air was cold, and the heat from the embers didn't drift close enough to the tree for me to draw in any warmth. Everything that had happened so far went by so quickly that I hadn't had time to think through them. For the past hour I had been too wired on the adrenaline still, I didn't bother to think about it. Now that I was alone and everything was so quiet and still….

My annoying little sisters, my little brother, my mom, my step-dad. They were all dead. How did I even get away? I hid away in a sewer near my house, using my gym bag to separate me from the world outside. I shivered, pulling my jacket closer to me, letting the tears fall down my face. I couldn't help them…

"Nova, slow down!" I heard someone yell.

"No." came a calm reply. The girl from my bus, Nova, I could recognize her voice. I saw her feet steadily walk past the opening, with two other pairs of feet following.

Part of me wanted to get out, tell them I was here, but I was too scared. Their voices were gone for thirty minutes, and I could faintly hear my name being called. It got louder as their footsteps approached the sewer again.

I didn't mean to, I didn't even know I had done it until she peered into the sewer. I had let out a sudden sob, and she stopped walking, dropping to her hands and knees, looking into the hole I had crawled in. "Elijah?" she asked, just looking at me, her eyes even. I didn't move, or say anything. For a moment she just watched me, waiting, and then she crawled in after me, sitting down beside me.

We said nothing to each other for a while, she just stared at the metal in front of her, holding her knees as her feet were pressed against the opposite wall. Nova took a deep breath and blew out, making her breath appear in the cold air. "I'm sorry." she said, her voice so soft, that if we weren't in an echoing sewer, I wouldn't have heard her.

"Why are you sorry?" I asked, my voice cracking, betraying me when I wanted to sound harsh, so she would leave me alone.

"Why do you think?" she asked. Her voice wasn't harsh, but it wasn't as soothing as it had been before. "I'm not feeling sorry for you, Elijah- so don't give me that macho defensive bull shit." she sighed.

"Then, why did you say you were sorry, if you weren't sorry for me? I don't need your pity." I snapped, my voice still choking.

She sighed again, "Because, you've pretty much got that covered.." she said, "Why not come out of this sewer, it's cramped." she suggested, attempting to stretch her back to prove herself right. I watched her as she went to exit. "Well?" she asked, looking back at me over her shoulder.

Why I followed her, I couldn't tell you. But, I stopped feeling sorry for myself, and began to act on instinct.

We'd found other kids from our school, all whom Nova persuaded to come with us, and live. Each one of them asked the question that I had been asking myself since she retrieved me from the sewer. Each time she gave the same answer.

Live because they want us dead. If we let ourselves die, they win. After everything, do you really want them to get what they want? That was all she would have to say, and we gathered supplies and were on our way.

It wasn't until our first group encounter with the tripods did I understand her reasoning.

We were all hiding out in a basement of an abandoned house. Everyone started relaxing, happy to be with familiar people. The only one of us that seemed constantly tense was Nova, always jumping up at the slightest sound that she didn't know the source of. She always kept a small sword with her, her hand twitching to the hilt.

Her mannerisms were so strange, and alert. I remembered when I had her in the same class, she was usually relaxed and laid back. "Ashley?" I whispered, as we were gathered around a little pile of embers for warmth and light. Ashley, a friend of Nova's who had moved away but came back to visit, looked up at me, her head cocked to the side to show that I had her attention. "Why is Nova acting like a tripod is going to come at any time?"

"Because, that's what she believes could happen." she replied, glancing over at Nova.

"Why?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows.

"Survival. I asked her once before, that was her answer." she laughed lightly. I nodded, and we fell back into silence.

"Hey, Elijah." Tanner, a guy who had graduated last year, called. "Why not play something?" he asked, gesturing to my ukulele. I shrugged and pulled it out, checking to see if it was tuned.

The group seemed to melt as I played my ukulele, smiling and happy for the life we'd left behind to come flooding back so sweetly. While I played, I looked around at the group. A group of people that Nova had managed to band together.

My eyes landed on Nova, who was staring up at the ceiling, her hand gripped tightly to her sword. I didn't realize it, but I had stopped playing. Everyone grew silent, noticing me staring at Nova who was staring at the ceiling with a concentrated glare.

Everyone nearly jumped out of their skin when there was a creak from above. "Gather everything quickly and quietly. There's an exit that way, we'll go out through there." Nova commanded quietly, only loud enough for us to hear.

Without hesitation, we picked up all of our stuff, shoving them into bags and finding the exit Nova had told us of quickly. The door to the basement opening made us all stop and gawk as a grey creature walked down the stairs. Nova was standing between us and it, her sword drawn, an ax not too far away. How sharp either were was a thought that just came to me. "Get out of here." Nova snapped, accidentally calling the aliens attention.

The sickening bellow it made was all that we needed to rush out. "Nova!" Jessie, Nova's brother, called. She threw her hand out behind her, motioning him to lead us on. He did as he was told, making Tanner and I stay behind and help her slow it down.

The alien watched us carefully as Nova handed me an ax, and Tanner picked up a crow-bar. Her eyes were wide in fear. The alien hollered again and charged us.

Tanner raised the crow-bar, going to strike it, but it quickly picked him up, slamming him into the ground. I could hear his bones crack, even while he was screaming. Nova pulled the blade from the sheath, and readied herself for it's next attack. "Elijah! Go catch up with the others!" she yelled, not looking at me.

I watched in disbelief as Nova faced the alien, alone. Again, it charged, and Nova thrust her arms forward, the sword piercing it's stomach. It bucked, screeching in pain and tossed her aside into the wall. The alien turned to me, and ran forward, "Elijah!" Nova screamed.

Fear and instinct moved my body, and before I knew it, I had lifted my arms and sliced through the aliens neck, stepped to the side and let it's decapitated body skid into the wall behind me. Tanner was dead, I could see that in his mangled body, and so I ran straight to Nova. "Are you alright?" I asked, helping her to sit up.

She heaved a large strained breath, "Yeah, but Jess is probably going to flip when he sees me." she laughed, and coughed. "How's Tanner?"

I sighed, and looked over my shoulder, "He's…he's dead." I said, looking up at her.

Nova's reaction wasn't something I was expecting. She always seemed so distant and determined, and she never showed much of any emotion. But, now, I could see her eyes watering as she bit her lip trying to keep the tears from spilling over. "N-Nova?" I asked, not sure of what to say. Her face began to turn pink from holding her breath. "Nova, just breath." she shook her head, pulling her knees up to her chest and burying her face in her hands.

Moving so I was sitting beside her, I thought of what I could say, placing my arm over her shoulder, which was now shaking violently from the sobs I could tell she was trying to keep silent. When she felt the weight of my arm on her, she looked up at me, the tears running down her cheeks, it was obvious she hadn't realized they'd began falling. "Do you trust me?" she asked, staring at me with her watery eyes.

"I'd never thought about it before…" I trailed off, pulling her closer to me when she shook again. "But, I think I do."

"Even though, I let Tanner die?" she asked, resting her head on my shoulder, letting herself become completely vulnerable.

"You didn't let him die, Nova. There was nothing you could've done." even as the words came out of my mouth, and even though they were true, I felt that they were completely the wrong thing to say. "Nova…Tanner's gone, and we can't do anything for him, you couldn't have done anything for him. But, I would gladly follow you into fire." I said, making her look at me.

"That's just stupid." I was about to pull away, but she continued, "I wouldn't lead you into fire." she said, completely serious.

"Which is why I trust you." I laughed. Hugging her to me, "Nova. We all trust you. You brought us together. If it weren't for you, I'd still be in that sewer. Jenny would still be at her house, crying over the abandonment of her family. Derek and his sister will probably never find their parents. Jaylin would probably be dead. And, Tanner wouldn't have had the chance of living."

"The chance? He's dead!" she shouted, hiding her face in her hands and sobbing, again.

"Someone once told me that we should live because they want us dead, and that after all they've done, why should we give them what they want…because of you, Tanner got his chance at getting back at them." I let out a breath, seeing the cloud of heat in the cold air. "You told the others that every time they asked why they should go on…and it wasn't until now that I finally understand what you mean. I admire you for that."

Nova didn't say anything for a long time, and I knew the sun would be coming up soon. The sounds of the tripods were fading away, but we didn't move, the bodies of Tanner and the alien beginning to smell.

Nova and I buried Tanner and burned the alien. After saying goodbyes and apologizing to Tanner's soil covered corpse, we gathered any necessary supplies before attempting to catch up with the group. This didn't take long since Jessie had made everyone stop at an abandon building to wait for us.

Of course, when we arrived, we learned that Tanner wasn't the only one of our group that we'd lost, although he was the only one to be known dead.

Everyone mourned his death, aside from Derek who was too broken up about his little sister getting lost during the escape to give a shit. Jenny and Ashley had eventually calmed him down, and Nova made the promise that we wouldn't stop looking for Riley, his sister, on our way to D.C.. Which we were all surprised to hear. "Why are we going to D.C.?" Caitlin asked.

"Because, Elijah said earlier that he has family up there. I'm hoping they're still alive and still there. If we can make it up to D.C., we might have a small chance at getting through this." she said, simply.

"I didn't know you were paying attention when I said that." I said, astounded. I had thought she was too busy waiting for the next attack to pay any mind to what we had to say.

"I always pay attention to what everyone says. Granted, I don't remember some stuff, but most everything, I retain." she said, pulling out some bread and peanut butter. "Now, we should eat- we have a long journey ahead of us."


	4. Chapter 4

**Derek**

Everyone was asleep, aside from Elijah, who was standing guard, and me. I pulled at the grass beside me, staring into the darkness. My thoughts were filled with the memory of my sister, all that I had left.

Nova had a point, we're all a family now, we're all we have left. But, Riley was my sister, she was alive. Nova promised we'd find her, but it didn't seem like we were even looking. She promised too much…first, she promised to find my sister, then she promised us to get us to D.C., now she's promising this new kid, Robbie, to get him to his family in Boston. How is she going to keep and fulfill those promises?

I groaned, rolling over onto my other side so that I was facing the fire. Over the embers I could see Jenny, lying peacefully. I knew that on the other side of her was Nova. She always slept on the outside of camp, protecting Jenny from whatever dangers lurked out there.

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath, and exhaled, relaxing myself. I shouldn't be thinking like this, Nova was only trying to do her best. She still wanted to find Riley, she still wanted to get us to D.C., and she will still want to get Robbie to his family in Boston. I had complete faith in Nova, she would fulfill all those promises…somehow.

Just keep running. Don't look back. Follow Jessie, he knows where to go. The group raced away from the building that one of the aliens had just entered. Nova, Tanner and Elijah stayed behind to hold it off.

I held tight to the bags I had swiped up in our escape, just trying to keep up to everyone else. We weaved in and out of trees, Jessie leading us toward yet another run down building, "Come on!" he called. Once we were inside, we dropped our bags and huddled together.

Ashley did a quick head count, and her face paled, her eyes landing on me. "What's wrong?" I asked, fearing the worst.

"Riley…." she whispered.

I turned on my heel and raced out of the building, "Riley! Ri-" my calling was cut short when I got tackled to the ground, a hand over my mouth.

"Shut up, Derek! Do you wanna draw them to us?" Jessie yelled at me. I shook my head, allowing the hot tears to run down my cheeks as he dragged me back inside.

Morning soon came, Nova and Elijah returned with the news that Tanner was dead. "Where's Riley?" Nova asked, looking around at our broken and exhausted faces.

"Gone." I whispered.

"Not dead, is she?" she asked, her eyes widening.

"We don't know." Caitlin replied.

The rest was a fond memory of Nova promising to get us to D.C. and on the way, search for Riley. Yes, I had utter faith in her. Faith and trust.

My eyes scanned the camp when I heard shuffling around. I found Nova making her way toward Elijah. She whispered something to him, he nodded, she handed him a piece of paper, and she disappeared into the darkness. Elijah sighed, shaking his head while leaning back against the tree. I could just faintly hear him mutter, "What am I getting myself into?"

Nova

I opened my eyes. It was time to put my plan into action. There was only one other person who knew of it, and he was on watch, just as I planned.

Grabbing my sword and bag, I walked as silently as I could over to Elijah. "Hey, it's time." I whispered. He looked up at me and nodded. I pressed a folded note into his hands, "Just incase I don't make it. Remember to bring everyone to the check point, I'll meet you there." I confirmed. He nodded again, and looked down at the note. I took that as my queue to leave, I could faintly hear him whisper 'good luck' before muttering to himself.

In an alien invasion, traveling blindly was not the best thing to do, but there wasn't much of an option for me. I had to find Riley. So I went back to where we lost her, which wasn't that far off, only a few miles from the shack where we'd met Robbie.

Everything was so…depressing. All signs of life were long dead. Corpses scattered the ground, blood seemed to just be in the air. I went to the trees where they had run through. I searched every way Riley could have turned until I found it. Her bracelet. I knew it was hers because it had her name on it, and I don't usually believe in coincidences. Looking around the perimeter, I found a tripod 'foot print'. It must of taken her. I tied the bracelet around my wrist and followed the tracks.

The closer I got to the shack, the more everything became covered in bloody red vein-like things. Not too far off I could see a tri-pod snatching up a small girl. I ran forward, diving into an overturned truck. After searching through what little was left, I found a belt of grenades.

I pulled off one of the grenades, about to pull the clip and throw it, but the tri-pod had already seen me. Holding tightly to the belt, it pulled me up in the air, the shock causing me to drop the grenade I had been about to throw. With a painful lurch forward, I was dropped into a cage of some sort, filled with other people, crying in despair.

My eyes flicked around at all the faces, none of which were Riley. Again, I fell forward, when the tri-pod turned. A man had grabbed the grenade I had dropped and threw it at the tri-pod, calling it's attention to him. It grabbed him and put him in the same cage as mine.

I looked over at the other cage, scanning the faces as best I could, "Riley!" I shouted, hoping that she would hear me if she was there. "Riley!" I was about to give up when a head of brown hair forced its way through the crowd.

"Nova?!" she shouted back, "Nova!"

"There you are!" I laughed, "We're going to get out of here, just stay close to the bars!" I commanded when I saw a tentacle thing slither into the cage, grabbing a human and pulling back in. She nodded, trusting me, and I turned away.

Earlier I had seen a soldier, so I quickly found him again, and climbed over the people towards him, "Hey! Someone needs to get inside," I told him, pointing up at the hole the tentacle had emerged from, and showing him the belt of grenades.

The soldier nodded, "We'll have to wait for it to come back, there's no other way." he informed. I nodded and got comfortable…well as comfortable as you could get in that kind of situation.

Robbie

"What's the capital of Australia?" Rachel asked. I looked at her, confused. But, then I smiled. It was all just a dream.

"That's one my brother knows." Ray replied, throwing the baseball back at me. "Robbie." he called, waiting for me to throw it back.

"What?" I asked,

"Robbie." he repeated. "Robbie!"

"What?" I asked, sitting up straight in my makeshift bed. I looked around, and saw Derek looking down at me.

"Start packing up, we gotta go." he said, standing up and stalking off. I looked around, wanting to know where we were headed.

When I didn't see Nova anywhere, I walked up to Elijah, "Where's Nova?" I asked.

"Gone." was all he said, not looking up at me. I suddenly realized that everyone was keeping their distance from him, and glaring.

"Gone where? Why's everyone glaring?" I asked, looking around at all of them.

"Because, he let Nova leave." Jessie snapped, walking up to us, his eyes narrowed at Elijah.

"It was her choice to go! Who was I to make her stay?" he asked defensively.

The two continued to argue, so I backed away. "I'll just…yeah." was all I said, lamely giving no excuse to step out of the argument. Instead I walked over to Jenny and sat beside her.

She was staring down at the pain pills and bottle of water in her hands. "She left. Why would she leave and not tell me…" she whispered.

"Jenny, you need to take your medication." I whispered, not answering her question. I didn't know Nova well enough to even guess why she hadn't told anyone but Elijah.

"No. She said she wouldn't abandon us." she snapped. I knew that the group would soon unravel with their unofficial leader no longer here. It was obvious that she was like the glue for the group.

"So, will we go?" Ashley asked, looking around at everyone, since Nova wasn't there to tell them 'yes' or 'no'.

"Nova wanted us to go so we'd be safe…yes we go." Jessie sighed, calming himself down. Everyone else nodded, Jenny scoffed but didn't protest.

It took us all day to reach the town that Nova had instructed us to go. We were all silent the whole way, everyone ignoring Elijah's existence. He held tightly to a piece of folded paper, and refused to meet anyone's hateful glances.

The town was rundown but there wasn't a tri-pod in sight. We walked out in the open, not saying anything and constantly looking around, still uneasy. There was a wheeling sound that drew everyone's attention.

A little kid was pushing a cart full of boxes slowly, it seemed like he hadn't noticed us at all. "Hey!" Jessie called, jogging up to him. The boy froze behind the cart, and stared wide-eyed at us.

Jessie went to say something else as he approached, but the kid opened his mouth and started screaming, "Brother! Brother!" Quickly, Jessie clamped his hand over the kids mouth to shut him up.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" some guy shouted, running up and shoving Jessie off the kid. "Who the hell are you?" he snapped, glaring at us.

"We're just a group of survivors. We need a place to stay." Jaylin explained, stepping up.

The guy sighed, "Alright. Come on." he shrugged, grabbing the cart from his brother, and he led us away. "I'm Chris, by the way. This is my little brother, Jacob." he said, gesturing to the little boy, who stuck his tongue out at Jessie.

Soon, Chris and Jacob led us into a house that had boarded up windows. "I'll take these to the kitchen." Jacob whispered, tugging the cart away as quietly as he could.

"Come on, I need to take you guys to Carl and Kate." Chris informed, walking down some stairs. "We stay in the basement, just incase those things come back. You listen to Carl and Kate, or you won't have anywhere to stay anymore." he said harshly.

"Do you have any medical supplies?" Caitlin asked, looking back at Jenny.

"Yeah, but first you need to meet Carl and Kate, then you might get some help."

"Might?" Elijah asked, finally speaking. Chris didn't reply, instead he knocked softly on a door. There was a faint 'come in'.


End file.
